~ as I wander around, lost

Monthly Archives: February 2015

Today we shall explore the game Fire Emblem: Awakening, specifically the characters and the way the narrative of this game buillds into and out of gameplay.

The Fire Emblem series of games are a what can be called a Tacticle JRPG in a High Fantasy sort of setting with magic and dragons, where people fight with swords and axes. In Fire Emblem: Awakening we play as a stranger (default name is Robin) who wakes up with no memory and help Prince Chrom.

Just look at the number of them – I am not going to rattle off about each and every one of these guys, but I will mention that all of them are different, can grow differently, fight with different styles and depending on your style of play are either indispensible or completely useless to your party build.

What is interesting though is the idea that each of these characters has a story to tell, and this story is told not by a bunch of character specific side quests or cutscenes but comes out by growing the relationships between the various characters.

A lot of games try to do this as well, Persona2-4 being the obvious choices. So what makes Fire Emblem Awakening stand out so much?

So to start of not only does building up relationship status allow for a bonus stats during the actual tatical battle system but it also permeates into a lot of the storylines of the children that the characters can have… yeah the main characters have kids – awesome right the amount of influence you have on these characters’ life.

Well, if you play it long enough you will realize that the kids are always the same for the mothers and it is simply the father who changes but at the same time the child’s skills are based on what the parents skills were going into the story mission for that child so…. some amount of affordance on part of the players chaoices for marriage pairings. It does create an interesting min-maxing for the best skill combos for the child’s skills.

At the same time it makes players invested in protecting and playing with certain characters in order to progress not just the story line but to take advantage of the various boosts and buffs that good chraters relationships create. So in games that are played out in the classic style where death is permanent, each character has meaning and wait especilly if the player is going through the game optimizing his/her gameplay for the best outcomes. It should also be noted that if done properly all of the children can end up more powerfull than their parents.

As players play through this game not only do their actions directly develop the narrative of each character through this epic journey, but alsoopens up avenues of further narrative and character development of other characters.

While I do go on about how great the narrative building is a unique experience of each playthrough there are some flaws. Initial ‘premise-oriented’ character traits are maintained. This means that even if you get two people married to different people, if their intial relationship setup was to be that of a stalker and the stalked then that dialogue kind of still occurs.

This does kind of break down the idea that the player has some agency over the relationship storylines and creates some expectancy that the choices would be far more meaningful and can affect even the dialogue. It could be something that could be developed and implemented into future Fire Emblem games.

No smart-alecky in this week’s title, just plain and simple: Far Cry 4. Also SPOILERS…

I finally finished it, my adventures in Kyrat. I played through it twice (and I will get to why in a moment) and I must say this was a good game. It is on par with the rest of the series and does the Far Cry franchise a lot of justice. I loved the voice acting and the stories that surrounded Kyrat. The world felt alive and lush despite the fact it was occurring in the Himalayas, every character had a story and tale and that gave them a depth that made them important even if they lasted only for 2 hours before dying in some horrific way (Noore).

I especially enjoyed the animals. While I did curse their existence when going up against hunters (who can control them), the animals in this game weren’t merely prey that you could easily stalk and hunt down and recycle for upgrades to your gear. Sometimes you would hear the tiger behind you but it wouldn’t merely be standing behind you ready to be shot, it would stalk you and move in the bushes. The wild dogs hunted in packs meaning unlike say Skyrim where you would be inexplicitly be attacked by a crazy dog, these guys would come at you in a group and try to tear you apart. The work on the animals AI is amazing – probably what I am getting at.

The open world is lush and amazing the opening colors from the sequence describe the vibrancy of Kyrat perfectly. It is like the festival of colors celebrated in India (although the setting is more Nepal-ish than India-ish). But images here will speak louder than words so have a look

Moving on the game has amazing theming going on with the vehicles, the language people speak, the way people speak English for the most part, even the clothing style of the armies was well themed with the whole Himalayan look. But there are parts that don’t really make sense. The songs on the radio (which honestly got annoying after a while) were in some language similar to the South Indian language of Tamil, in fact one of my friends said he even recognized the lyrics and the song to be Tamil, so yeah about that. Don’t get me wrong the music overall was awesome and all the throw backs to the old style of Bollywood’s 90’s tracks was really cool. I don’t know what Nepal listens to, I’ve never have been there, but would they really listen to some Tamil song pretending to be a Bollywood song (because of Just Dance 2 having it – also a Ubisoft product hmmm), not too sure.

The guns in this this First Person Shooter are awesome, I loved them all although towards the end I did have my favorites and I kind of stuck to them. To list them out:

1. Recurve Bow:

Can have all the weapons that your guns provide (silence, explosion and fire), it is probably the best weapon in the game except when you haven’t realized gravity is a thing and you keep missing cause you aimed to low or too high. Still once upgraded with sights it is is probably the best weapon in the game and my go to weapon. Also is it just me or are bows getting a lot of love in games since Tomb Raider nailed the whole bow physics thing. Hmmm… moving on

2. Warrior Assault rifle:

This assault rifle is good when you want to finish off a battle in a blood filled rage that doesn’t include stealthy bow work. I used it a lot when i just wanted to get over with the retaking of an outpost that didn’t have any heavy duty gaurds. The Fire rate, accuracy and mobility on this thing when completely upgraded makes it a really good go to weapon when you have no arrows left.

3. Generic Sniper/Shotgun/RPG/Launcher – having no Preference is also a preference

I used my third main weapon slot as a utility for mission based artillery, need a helicopter shot down – carry an RPG, need to silently take out a bunch of guards – equip the sniper. I also filled it with LMGs, SMGs and Shotguns – anything I would pick up off of guards.

Pistol: Not part of the enumerated list…

Didn’t care- I don’t use pistols unless I have no other ammo, which would never happen because the enemies drop a ton of loot. No I am not joking a ton of it, upgrading the ammo bag, gun holster and loot bag would/should be your top priorities. There is an entire level after escaping Yuma Lau’s prisons where I could have gone for a stashed weapons arsenal which instead I got through only with a SMG and an Assault rifle and some throwing knives.

A weapon which deserves a lot of credit are the elephants, here is what the elephants in Far Cry 4 are capable of:

Moving on to the best part of this game:

“Should I stay or Should I go”

This line plays after the opening cut scene that sets up the premise of this game. Also Pagan Min says quite clearly that he is careful with his words. Immediately what follows is a whole dialogue with Pagan Min (the ‘antagonist’) that ends in him walking away and explicitly telling you, Ajay the protagonist to wait for him. Remember he is very careful and precise with his words…

The whole opening can be seen below:

This is what really blew my mind.

As most people playing a video game would, I began roaming around, exploring the mansion and upon hearing flashing lights and screaming I went down the stairs into the torture room where I got sucked into the civil war of Kyrat. I then play through the game help Kyrat pick a new leader from the two that lead the Golden Path, Amita and Sabal, neither of whom deserved anything. I tried killing them on several occasions only for the game to reset saying – nope can’t do that. After realizing both of them would anyway drive Kyrat into ruin, I finished the game only to learn Ajay (me) could have been king, if Ajay (I) had just waited, as Pagan had told me too. And who else to explain this to me but the man himself who leads the protagonist to the grave of Ajay’s half-sister Lakshmana (the whole point of this game) who was killed by Ajay’s father, to place the ashes of Ajay’s mother (Ishwari) at Lakshmana’s side.

So I did what any person who could bend the space and time of the game world. I booted up a new game to see what happened when I waited.

I waited for about 10 minutes and lo and behold – Pagan Min does come back, he gives me the keys to his kingdom, takes me to see Lakshmana where I place the urn with Ajay’s mother’s ashes and talks about getting to the shooting while the game ends.

So what is playing the game then? Is not playing the game still playing the game, was there any game to begin with or did the game unfold because we decided not to do what we were told to do by the in-game characters but rather follow the instructions that some invisible being put in front of us (UI). Did I really rampage through and tear up a nation merely because I couldn’t hold myself back and just had to be curious about the basement. Who were the good guys and who were the bad guys was there any ever difference between the two. The whole objective of this game was to return the ashes to Lakshmana, so why didn’t I just choose the easy way out the first time? Honestly both leaders of the Golden path lead the country to ruination; so I ran off, acted like a monkey and handed over the country either to a religious nut-case or a wannabe drug lord, how exactly had I helped Kyrat again?

I was lost in thought with all these questions in in my head. I decided to take a step back and finally I just accepted that I had been taken away by this alternate ending and allowed my mind to ponder on something less about the artistic artifact in front of me and more about the people who made it and their intentions. Was this ending just an easter egg or was it truly the primary intention of the developers all along. A game that shouldn’t be played; a game where the ‘obvious choice of a game’ is superceded by the ‘obvious choice of reality’. I mean honestly if I was really in the situation Ajay was in and not playing it as a game I would have never moved from that spot and would have done exaclty whatever Pagan Min said, I mean his face is on the currency and he brutally murdered that army guy with a pen. (Plus there wouldn’t be any UI giving me conflicting information…)

With that I rest my fingers on the keyboard and read over this article for spelling and grammer mistakes, which I am sure it still has plenty of.

I have been wondering about what to write about for a while, with the first 2 posts of this blog which I want to slowly turn into a weekly blog done, my mind was emptied to an extent. I couldn’t sit down and focus on a particular part of a game or anything with regards to design. As I pondered along the lines about why I had nothing in my head I began to wander around in my own mind, which I do very often, but now without much purpose. I am recording my mind as I think. This is pretty much a rambling on various topics and as I think I write.

So….

Yeah, I feel lost, lost in this endless process of deep thinking about games. I like Bravely Default, should I write about that. But here’s the thing, I view Games as an art form, due to my computational media background. This means to me any thoughts whether superficial or deep about games is subjective, there cannot be facts about what makes good games, well at least to me. I know people will argue otherwise and try to show me some facts, but all I will say is that those facts are merely a common perception due to general similarity between most human psyches. Games are an art form, and any and all views on them are subjective. I remember…Its like,… now for something completely different.. Monty Python.

That reminds me of something I was thinking of in relation with Bravely Default as well, narrative in games. I was recently thinking about content delivery via gameplay which led me to rediscover Janet Murray’s book ‘Hamlet on a Holodeck’, really good book. I keep going back to the idea of narrative as platform agnostic, but as one anime famously quotes ‘it is important to understand the differences in media.’. This anime (Seitokai no Ichizon) was a light novel that was made into both an anime and mange simultaneously, so that statement makes a lot of sense as the opening of such a series, as the author had always intended for the seireis to break into various media. So how do you disperse content in games especially educational content, without banging ‘LEARN’ on the heads of students. I do remember that Extra Credits did a piece on that once….

I feel like I need a tether, something to anchor me to a topic. The importance of limitations – I get it now; they give me a walled room, maybe with a ceiling, that I can explore every nook and cranny of. This may lead to new discoveries and innovation inside of the box. In this open ended thinking of whatever is not very…whats the word… dunno. I now have a new found love for themes and structure and order and anchors, especially limitation-anchors. I understand at this point what many people say when they focus and innovate within an enclosed space, I have always felt that openness is the place to innovate in but now at this point in time I feel the enclosed pastures of grass is where the mind can do its best deep thinking. Anything that limits you, impedes you gets in you way is a good thing, it helps you grow harder, better, faster, stronger (I love that song (Daft Punk)) by innovating within that space, gives you a goal an aim a target to shoot for and work towards, this deep thinking foray is not really good for me who is so unfocused. I mean really when I want to discuss a game I discuss what I like and don’t like and that means I will like most games, I am addicted to games. I cannot fathom why people claim that sports games are pointless or that shooting games are overrated. I say sure fine that’s your opinion, I still buy every Call of Duty and almost every FIFA and NFL, as I said game commentary is subjective, there is no right or wrong it is a critique. Also I love RPGs…

So back to RPGs like Bravely Default, I am excited about the resurgence in the JRPG genre. Final Fantasy 15 looks amazing, Bravely Default was a smash hit. Fire Emblem and its unique battle mode were superb. But most of all the one game that I feel that brought about this resurgence was Ni no Kuni, play it. This game really worked on strengthening its strengths. Its battle system was near perfect, I say near because art is subjective and I feel as though it could learn from other summoning RPGs like Shin Megami Tensei with regards to strategy, but again that’s my opinion.

Its also interesting that this resurgence is in countries outside of Japan (the J comes from Japanese). Japan has become a mobile-game market. The success of DeNA is proof of that, as is the testimonial failure of the PS Vita in the Japanese market. Phones, Phablets and Tablets have taken over this country. It has led to some really bad ports of some of my favorite final fantasy games.

Is it possible that we have entered a new era of technology, with tablets having reached a state where they can completely replace computers. I do not mean the iPad, the iPad still needs a Mac computer to generate content and cannot support itself, but look at the Surface Pro3. I know no one buys Surfaces, but that’s just because Microsoft has bad marketing, look at how they messed up the XboxOne. The Surface Pro 3 is A4 paper size, we all like that size, why?, maybe because we grew up with almost all paper that we print on being that size, most notebooks are also that size and most folders and binders are for that size. We like it, the size ‘feels’ good. Anyway it has an i5/i7 Intel processor which can compete with most major laptops. It has the full Windows8.1 suite which also works very well with touch based computers in my opinion. So it is perfect. To me if iPad and Samsung don’t start moving towards these laplet (like phablet) architecture they may lose out. Also a lot of developers who work on Windows have slowly been shifting to the Surface Pro3, I mean A4 size who can resist, it also comes with a pen like thing…think about it, pen and paper.

So with the new waves created by new technologies like the laplets, the hololens, google glass, etc; will come new people attempting to become the hottest, hippest, coolest, something-est surfers riding the new waves of technology. What these surfers bring to their fan-bases will be amazing to see. I do want to just sit back and observe the surfing competitions, but a part of me wants to go out and ride the waves, see what they feel like, see where they might end up, will they end up as large as a internet tsunami or will they merely be a slight increase due to global warming (up to technology hahaha). There has already been a large push to the whole second screen gaming style. Nintendo had it before anyone, they were just to early.

I have also notice an interesting merge between VR and AR. This is leading to ‘Virtual’ artifacts entering into the ‘Real’ world. Dilad screens and Programmable matter may as well be the future. Imagine opening a Dungeons and Dragons box and all it has is this sand like programmable matter. Out of this sand like matter the entire map is built out into the world around us, we now have a true coexistence of the virtual and real words creating immersion as we have never seen it before.

I guess it should be interesting to design games to convey some content in this space of ever changing technology, but also the indie scene has been really growing and most of the games coming out of this Kickstarter indie craze are a bunch of NES-esque games. I wonder what that could end up being….

And here I take control of my wandering mind and end this blog else it will go on forever; (I think a lot, INTP or whatever). Maybe I will let my mind wander again for a Train(s) of Thought #2 maybe not, we’ll see.